Seven papers published in the current issue of Technology and Innovation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors report on efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure continued safe and secure storage and disposition of 50 years worth of spent nuclear fuel, surplus nuclear materials, and high-level wastes at DOE facilities.

"Technology, innovation, development and deployment are key elements in the DOE cleanup effort," said Yvette T. Collazo, Paula G. Kirk and A. Alan Moghissi of the DOE's Office of Environmental Management and authors of a lead-in editorial outlining the issues addressed by papers – issues that range from how to prioritize projects to the nuts and bolts of advanced mediation efforts. "The DOE has implemented a new approach and business model to incorporate innovative strategies that build on scientific advancements to reduce the legacy footprint."

During 50-plus years of nuclear weapons production and government-sponsored nuclear energy research and production that generated contaminated soil and groundwater covering two million acres in 35 states, the U.S. government did not have environmental structures, technologies or infrastructure to deal with the legacy.

"Many of the excess facilities awaiting deactivation and decommissioning are one-of-a-kind or unique to the DOE, with unprecedented scope and complexity," said the authors. "In many cases, the necessary technologies are not yet developed or, if developed, they require significant re-engineering to fit DOE needs."

In the current issue of Technology and Innovation, recent DOE efforts have both offered and analyzed remediation technology projects; technical reviews for evaluating system-level modeling and simulation; remedies for subsurface contamination; engineering systems for predicting the fate and transport of wastes; and communication models for the technical communities. The new models also include designs for collaboration between regulators, stakeholders, field offices, contractors, scientists, and technology developers.

The Cementitious Barriers Partnership collaborated with the Department of Energy to devise simulation tools to estimate and improve the performance of cement barriers in nuclear applications (Daryl R. Haefer, DOE, Office of Environmental Management and Sharon L. Marra, Savannah River National Laboratory). Finally, Process Knowledge (PK) is a key resource for the DOE Office of Environmental Management's efforts to deactivate and decommission facilities for disposition. This article explains how the elements of the PK body of knowledge were developed (Paula G. Kirk, DOE, Office of Environmental Management, et al.).